The Storybook Forest Copyeditor
If your father is an English professor, how do you respond to poorly written signs in a kiddie park?Everywhere I go, I like taking pictures of signs with mistakes that make good classroom proofreading examples.
Shortly after I moved to Western Pennsylvania, I learned that Idlewild Park is the regional version of Disneyland. Every year we get season passes, and a regular stop for us is Storybook Forest -- which my wife remembers visiting when she was a little girl.
Who knows how many generations of children have seen this sign and wondered about the anonymous dwarven sign-maker who claims ownership over the familiar seven?
My son, a voracious reader, takes a scientific interest in words. After getting his six-year-old sister interested in comic books, he helped me teach her about onomatopoeia (notably "thwipp," which every Spider-Man fan recognizes as the sound of web-shooters.)I was quite amused when Peter launched into a critique of the supposedly educational sign pictured below. (The audio file is about 2 minutes long.)
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A boy after my own editorial heart, haha. Thanks for sharing this. I loved Idlewild throughout my childhood. I remember pointing out the Dwarf's sign to my mom one time. (I've seen this kind of thing Hershey and Kennywood too. Check out the warning signs, i.e. "Do not ride this if you have had back surgery or heart attack's." Ha.)
Awesome audio file with Peter, Dennis! I must admit that Peter sounds more advanced about proofreading than freshman students who enter and exit my composition courses at BGSU. However, I wonder how Peter cooperates well with a recording device, other than being a good son and person. Does the politics of an audio recording device differ from a camera?
My kids are actually quite used to me carrying around a voice recorder and pulling it out to do little interviews like this.
"Well, certainly if you baa at geese, they'll get confused." (from Peter Jerz's audio file). This is an apt metaphor for human creativity. When we are confronted with "educational signs" like the one you and Peter met, we have to interpret them in a way that makes sense to us. Sometimes engaging in the interpretation is more stimulating than the message itself! I commend Peter, at the tender age of six, for recognizing the errors and explaining them in such a clever way. This is definitely a case of "like father, like son." Dennis, your kids have a promising future, with a Dad like you taking advantage of those "teachable moments" for posterity. When they grow up, you'll will appreciate those recordings and observations so much. I like this quote from John Milton, "The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day." Peter's on the right track.
Correction: Sorry, I just realized I had read incorrectly: I guess Peter is the older sibling and his sister is six years old. By the way, he really resembles you too, Dennis, in appearance and demeanor. Definitely a budding scientist or professor.
Yes, Peter is quite a talker, though we noticed curious gaps in his vocabulary. He once asked, "What does 'neat and tidy' mean?" From that, you can probably deduce a lot about our home life!
We are from Central Ohio and used to take our kids to Story Book Forest back in the early 70's.
We recently ran across an old photo of the kids standing in front of a sign. The wording appears to say "Wilson's" and under that -- in smaller, nearly illegible print -- are words that could say Story Book Forest.
Does anyone know if there was ever a "Wilson" involved with the Park?
I don't think I'll be able to get back to Storybook Forest before it closes for the year. But I know a student who worked there this summer... I'll ask her.
According to the Idlewild website, "Story Book Forest was the brainchild of Mr. CC Macdonald, former owner of Idlewild Park, and Arthur Jennings, a performance clown who spent his summers entertaining guests at Idlewild. Working together, they made their dream a reality."
But there are other kiddie parks named "Story Book Forest" (or some variation).